Strawbery Banke Presents
HISTORIC PORTSMOUTH #216

Things change. This 1959 sketch of the proposed Strawbery Banke Inc. "project" show a very different vision from the museum we know today. The founders’ "colonial village" plan originally mirrored Market Square as it may have looked between the Revolution and the War of 1812. (Continued below)

 HISTORIC PHOTOS of the Greater Portsmouth Area appear here weekl

A reconstructed Old Statehouse stands in the center between a copy of the Portsmouth Athenaeum to the left and an earlier wooden version of the North Church to the right. This imaginary village was modeled after outdoor museums at Williamsburg, VA and Sturbridge, MA. It was never built, yet vestiges of the concept survive. The Daniel Webster House, Stoodley’s Tavern and the Gov. Goodwin Mansion, for example, were moved from other parts of the city before the museum opened in 1965.